Machine type communications (MTC) refers to machines, or devices, communicating with each other over a network. Machine type communications have wide applicability in diverse functional areas including, for example, in connection with surveillance, asset tracking, fleet tracking, remote sensing, vehicle diagnostics, and digital metering, to name a few areas. Communications between machines may be made over any suitable transport technology including, for example, fixed networks, wireless networks, or a combination of both. In one common embodiment, devices communicate over a wireless cellular network such as a 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) network.
The ability of 3GPP networks to provide features, which may be referred to as services, to each of several devices in a group of devices has proven particularly useful in connection with machine to machine communications. For example, the 3GPP network core provides services whereby the same message is distributed to a defined group of devices which may be, for example, user equipment (UE). Similarly, the 3GPP network provides a service whereby a defined group of devices or UEs may be policed in order to enforce a policy for a defined group of devices. In another example, the 3GPP network provides a service whereby records of chargeable events for a defined group of UEs are collected rather than being collected individually.
3GPP's capabilities in providing services to defined groups of devices has applicability to a wide variety of device installations. For example, a group of devices that run the same application or exhibit a similar behavior are often good candidates for receiving group based services. Similarly, devices that are housed in the same facility or group of facilities lend themselves to receiving services as a group. Likewise, a plurality of devices that are owned or operated by the same entity may benefit from being grouped together for purposes of receiving services. Still further, it may be operationally efficient to use 3GPP services in connection with several devices that are housed in or traveling in the same vehicle. From both a customer and network operator point of view, there is benefit in optimized handling of groups of MTC devices.
Accordingly, it is frequently the case that devices lend themselves to being serviced as a group. Furthermore, the expanded deployment of machine to machine communications in 3GPP networks will inevitably lead to the greater utilization to existing group based services and the deployment of new group based services.
Creating groups of devices for purposes of receiving services is typically accomplished by manual intervention. For example, each of the relevant machines and servicing core network devices must be individually provisioned with the appropriate information so that the relevant devices may be serviced as a group. Similarly, when modifications to an existing group of devices are needed, the impacted devices must be individually provisioned in order to implement the modifications.